Harold Best
Left-wing Labour MP who sought to restrict the conversion of family homes into student digs
HAROLD BEST, who has died aged 82, was the Left-wing Labour MP for Leeds North West between 1997 and 2005, and a passionate champion of his constituency.
He defeated the sitting Conservative Keith Hampson in one of the surprise results of the election that brought Tony Blair to power. He increased his majority in 2001, but when he stood down at the next election the seat fell to the Liberal Democrats.
Alex Sobel, the constituency’s current Labour MP, said Best – who lived in the city almost all his life – “had Leeds North West running through his veins.” In particular, he was credited with securing for nearby Otley the new Wharfedale Hospital, opened in 2004.
During his first term at Westminster, Best was supportive of Blair’s government, though he did vote against cuts in welfare. But in his second, he was a strong critic of the Iraq war, and opposed foundation hospitals and student top-up fees.
The constituency issue that exercised him most was the impact on Headingley, where he lived, of the unrestricted conversion of family homes, which had led to students forming two-thirds of the population.
He campaigned at Westminster for conversions by absentee landlords to be restricted, and in Leeds for wardens to patrol student areas to monitor littering and other anti-social behaviour.
Every morning, Best got up early to pick chip trays out of his flower beds and clear burger buns from the pavement. Two years of eight students next door kicking a football at 2am against their party wall left his wife being treated for depression. In 2000, the Bests had them evicted, a public inquiry ruling that the house should no longer accommodate students.
Similar problems in Edinburgh, Birmingham and other cities led Best to convene a conference of government ministers and civic leaders to see what lessons could be learnt.
Best said 8,500 families had moved out of Headingley in three years. Schools feared closure because of a shortage of children; council services were under strain because students were exempt from council tax, local shops were being replaced by takeaways, and there were complaints of foxes and rats.
“The universities in Leeds are like Blake’s dark satanic mills,” he said. “They are polluters blighting the landscape, and the polluter must pay. The proliferation of shared houses with absentee landlords is like a medieval plague. Geographers are studying the problem, but by the time they complete their Phds the destruction of Headingley will be complete.”
Harold Best was born in Leeds on December 18 1937, to Fred and Marie Best. He attended Meanwood County School, completing his education at Leeds College of Technology.
He became an electrical technician, working for the Co-op, in the electrical contracting industry, and finally for Leeds Education Department.
As a young man, Best was involved in the fight against Communist infiltration of the Electrical Trades Union, which culminated in the prosecution of several of its leaders for ballot-rigging. For a time, he was a full-time union official.
Leeds North West had been Conservative since the seat was created in 1950, and when Best was chosen to fight it, he was not expected to win. But in May 1997 he ousted Hampson with a majority of 3,844.
In 2001 he increased the margin, again over a Conservative, to 5,236. Best announced midway through his second term that he would not stand again, and Judith Blake, today leader of the city council, was selected in his place.
The Lib Dems had been winning council seats from Labour, claiming the council and central government were not acting on their promises to tackle the problem with student housing. At the 2005 election, Greg Mulholland captured Leeds North West by 1,877 votes to become the Lib Dems’ only MP in West Yorkshire. It was 2017 before Labour won it back.
Harold Best married his wife, Glyn, in 1960. She survives him, with their two sons and two daughters.
Harold Best, born December 18 1937, died August 24 2020